In 1683, the Dzungarian army under the command of Galdan Boshugtu Khan's nephew, Tsewang Rabtan, reached Chach (present-day Tashkent) and the Syr Darya, by defeating only two Kazakh troops.

Using their military superiority, the Dzungar troops temporarily seized part of Zhetysu, and the advancing forces also reached the Sarysu River in Central Kazakhstan.

This sparked an alarm among the Kazakhs, and encouraged famous elders, biys, people's batyrs, and the most far-sighted Chingizids, to make efforts to unite the military and civilian potential of the three Juzes.

Taking advantage of disagreements between the rulers of the three Juzes, including the Middle Juz that was led by three Khans, Bolat, Semyon, and Abulmambet, in 1714 the Dzungars made another sudden invasion of Kazakhstan.

In 1722, after the death of the Kangxi Emperor, who had been at war with the Dzungars for a long time, a truce was established on the border with the Qing dynasty, which allowed for Tsewang Rabtan to focus more on the Kazakh lands.

The aggression by the Dzungar Khanate, often referred by the Kazakhs as the "Years of the Great Disaster", that brought suffering, hunger, destruction of moral values, and caused an irreversible damage to the development of effective civilian force where thousands of men, women, and children were captured and imprisoned.

The "Years of the Great Disaster" (1723–1727) as they're known because of their destructive consequences which are often compared to the Mongol invasions of the beginning of the 13th century, the Dzungar military aggression significantly influenced the international situation in Central Asia.

This is evidenced by the request of the Kalmyk rulers to the Russian Tsarist government for military assistance to protect their summer nomads along the left bank of the Volga River.

The tremendous turmoil caused by the Dzungar invasions and a massive loss of basic wealth which was livestock led to an economic crisis that intensified political disputes among the ruling Kazakh elite.

After the meeting, the militia of the three Juzes united and were headed by Abilqaiyr and Bogenbai Batyr who in the Battle of Bulantin, defeated the Dzungar troops, which occurred in the foothills of Ulytau, in the Karasyir area.

Military operations took place in the territory of 200 km and according to a legend, the battle lasted 40 days and represented a lot of fights, confrontations of various units, clashes between the reoccurring locations at the mountain peaks.

The Battle of Ańyraqaı played an important role in the victorious 200-year war conclusion of the Kazakh people where the Dzungar army was successfully defeated.

Semek and Abilqaiyr considered themselves neglected and because of it, they abandoned the battlefield, which was a morale blow to the campaign of liberating Kazakh lands from the Dzungarian invaders.

At the end of the 1730s, after concluding a truce with the Qing Dynasty, the ruling class of the Dzungar Khanate began active military-political preparations for another invasion of Kazakhstan and Central Asia.

In the spring of 1735, Bogenbay Batyr informed the tsarist authorities that the Kazakhs who had escaped from Dzungar captivity warned that Galdan Tseren was planning to send an army to attack the Kaisaks of the Middle Juz.

However, the khans and sultans of the Middle Juz only started to gather troops and prepare to repel the enemy at the very last moment, when the invasion of the Dzungars had already begun.

At the end of February 1741, the 30,000 strong Dzungar army, under the command of Septen and his elder son, Galdan Tsereng Lama-Dorji, again invaded Kazakhstan and reached Tobol and the Ishim river with skirmishes.

The majority spoke for peace, so a Kazakh ambassador was sent to Dzungaria which negotiated terms of an armistice and the release of prisoners, including Abylai Khan.

The ruling Qing dynasty in China, which closely followed the developments in the Dzungar Khanate, considered the time to be the most suitable for delivering a final decisive blow to its weakened enemy.

[3] The first half of the 18th century was not only a period of tragic misfortunes and heavy military defeats for the Kazakhs, but also a time of heroic deeds in the struggle against the Dzungars and other invaders.

The weakness of the state power with the inability and unwillingness of the feudal elite who were engaged in internal strife instead of mobilizing the country's defenses prompted the most energetic, patriotic representatives of the Kazakh people to organize a fierce resistance against the enemies.

In a war against the Dzungars, and the Manchu-Chinese invaders later on as well represent a whole group of brave warriors and skilled commanders who were: Bogembai, Qabanbai, Malaysary, Zhanibkek, Baian, Iset, Baygozy, Zhatay, Urazymbet, Tursynbai, Raiymbek and many others with Ablai Khan being well known among them.

The Kazakhs also fought on several fronts in which from the east with Dzungaria, the west where they were disturbed by Yaik Cossacks, Kalmyks and Bashkirs supported by Russia who constantly raided the border, and from the south against the states of Kokand, Bukhara, and Khiva.

After the death of the Galdan Tsereng in 1745 which caused an internal strife and civil war, by the struggle of candidates for the main throne and the disputes by the ruling elite of Dzungaria, one of whose representatives, Amursan, called for Chinese troops.

About ten thousand families of Dzungars, derbets, and Hoyts, led by the Noyan and Tsereng, fought hard and went to the Volga of the Kalmyk principality.